The Church Manifested - 9/28
Sermon Series: The Church ________________
Sermon Title: The Church – Manifested
Sermon Text: 1 Corinthians 12:1-11
Theme: The main point of this passage is not that there is a list of specific spiritual gifts out of which each Christian has to decide which one they are going to practice. The point is that in each Christian there is some kind of manifestation of the Spirit. This Spirit led force is what gives the Church of God the character of God. God puts His mark of identity on the Church through the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the believer’s lives.
Introduction: At the commencement exercises for Purdue University’s engineering schools, graduates of each school stood en masse to be recognized by the dean of engineering. When the aeronautical-engineering students rose, they launched a swarm of paper airplanes toward the stage, where the university’s president and other dignitaries were sitting. After students from all the schools had risen in turn, the president stepped up to the rostrum. Looking at the paper planes covering the stage floor, he remarked, “I’m very glad the agricultural-engineering graduates decided not to throw anything.”
Transition: Today as we continue our study through the letter to the Corinthians we are going to begin taking a look at one of the most scrutinized passages of scripture in the NT. Paul’s teaching on Spiritual giftedness is a central tenet of how we do what we do in this organization known as the Church. More than that though I think it is important for us to understand that at the core of this message is the idea that we can know it is God’s Church that Jesus is the head of our organization only through the manifestation of His Holy Spirit through individual’s lives.
I. The Spirit is verified by the content of the message
a. The content of the message verifies its authenticity.
i. Verse 3 makes it clear that it is not the claim of inspiration by the speaker that Paul finds relevant but instead the content of what is being spoken. In other words you can claim that God has given you a message but unless it stands up to the rest of God’s special inspiration it may or may not be a message from God, only an opinion of man.
b. At the beginning of the Church age, the Holy Spirit began to show up in some peculiar places that the believers didn’t expect. You remember when Peter was confronted by Cornelius and other believers in Caesarea he took a lot of convincing before he would believe that God was calling these people to be believers just like the ones in Jerusalem but finally he was convinced because the expression of God through the believers their by the Holy Spirit convicted him that they were genuine believers. Peter in Acts Ch. 10-11 at Caesarea.
c. A young American engineer was sent to Ireland by his company to work in a new electronics plant. It was a two-year assignment that he had accepted because it would enable him to earn enough to marry his long-time girlfriend. She had a job near her home in Tennessee, and their plan was to pool their resources and put a down payment on a house when he returned. They corresponded often, but as the lonely weeks went by, she began expressing doubts that he was being true to her, exposed as he was to comely Irish lasses. The young engineer wrote back, declaring with some passion that he was paying absolutely no attention to the local girls. “I admit,” he wrote, “that sometimes I’m tempted. But I fight it. I’m keeping myself for you.” In the next mail, the engineer received a package. It contained a note from his girl and a harmonica. “I’m sending this to you,” she wrote, “so you can learn to play it and have something to take your mind off those girls.” The engineer replied, “Thanks for the harmonica. I’m practicing on it every night and thinking of you.”At the end of his two-year stint, the engineer was transferred back to company headquarters. He took the first plane to Tennessee to be reunited with his girl. Her whole family was with her, but as he rushed forward to embrace her, she held up a restraining hand and said sternly, “Just hold on there a minute, Billy Bob. Before any serious kissin’ and huggin’ gets started here, let me hear you play that harmonica!”
d. One of the things that gives us the ability to know other Christians is the manifestation of the Holy Spirit in their lives. In all Christians we should see the same message being lived out in the daily circumstances of their lives.
e. And if we run across a teacher or preacher that teaches or lives out a different message than the Gospel message we can be sure that they are not Holy Spirit confirmed.
II. The Spirit is verified by the diversity of His manifestation
a. The Spirit is known in the believers life through three different descriptions given by Paul – V. 4-6
i. Gifts
1. The word used here is charisma it is the regular word for a gift that has been freely given without any thought of compensation. It really means a gracious gift. From the root word Charis out of which we get grace or favor. It expresses the magnanimity of the giver. In other words it is something we get a free side product of our commitment to Christ.
ii. Service
1. The word used here is the same one that we get both ministry and deacons from. It carries the idea that our work in the church, whether it is preaching the word or cleaning the facility is intended to be Spirit filled duty – a direct expression of God through our lives.
iii. Activities
1. The word used here is one that we get our word for energy from and while it does speak to our efforts, the connotation of the word lets us know that he is talking about the effects of our efforts.
b. Paul then gives a list of spiritual gifts that the Corinthian church is apparently aware of.
i. One area where I think that some people make a mistake is the idea that this is an encyclopedia list of available spiritual gifts for believers.
ii. There are four places where a variety of spiritual of spiritual gifts are listed – here, Romans 12 and Ephesians 4. None of these lists are exactly alike and none of them claim to be a complete list of Spiritual gifts.
iii. I think that we sometimes get to hung up on the idea that we have to manifest a gift which is a part of one of these lists instead of fully opening ourselves up to participation in the body of Christ and finding areas service or giftedness or activities that we enjoy and that we have an ability for then we can let God take care of making us into the tool He wants us to be.
c. When architect Sir Christopher Wren designed the interior of Windsor Town Hall near London in 1689, he built a ceiling supported by pillars. After city fathers had inspected the finished building, they decided the ceiling would not stay up and ordered Wren to put in some more pillars. England’s greatest architect didn’t think the ceiling needed any more support, so he pulled a fast one. He added four pillars that did not do anything — they don’t even reach the ceiling. The optical illusion fooled the municipal authorities, and today the four sham pillars amuse many a tourist.
III. The Spirit is verified by the unity of His
manifestation.
a. One of the things that we can’t miss as we study this passage is the unifying force that is intended in the work of the Holy Spirit as He equips believers for our tasks.
b. A quick glance down this passage shows that the main point of what Paul is trying to get across is that there is one Spirit who manifests Himself through individual unique giftedness in order for there to be unity and integrity of purpose in Jesus’ church.
i. Verse 4 – “the same Spirit”
ii. 5 – the same Lord
iii. 6 – The same God
iv. 7 – manifestation –for the common good
v. 8 – the same Spirit
vi. 9 – the same Spirit and the one Spirit
vii. 11 – one and the same Spirit
c. Have you ever noticed that for most of the big chain stores are immediately recognizable even if there were no signs posted anywhere in their facilities. If somebody blindfolded you and took you into a Walmart store the moment the blindfold was taken off chances are you would be able to tell exactly where you were. A couple of years ago a new Walgreens was built in Moberly. Have you noticed that all Walgreens are built on corner lots and look exactly alike? In the retail business they call this brand identity and it is considered very important. When a business has reached its zenith than its brand is immediately recognized all over the world. I noticed during the Olympic games that Coca Cola was on bill boards over there in China and even though I can’t read a stick of Chinese I immediately recognized that red and white can and logo.
d. For the Church the manifestation of the Holy Spirit is our logo, it is God’s fingerprint clearly expressed in our lives. It should be immediately recognized wherever we go. And the incredible thing is our identifiability should have nothing to do with a standardized uniform. God doesn’t like clones on the contrary a look at His creation will reveal that His imagination soars with the incredibly diverse but just as each creature in nature is stamped with His product label – as Christian we have each been irrevocably marked on our souls by the fingerprint of our maker.
